600 rally at Capitol as GOP leaders call for more freedom from federal fiscal policies

By: Bill Cotterell
April 16, 2010

Republican leaders called for a “declaration of renewed independence” from federal fiscal policies Thursday as hundreds of happy, flag-waving conservatives celebrated income-tax day at the Florida Capitol.

“Welcome, patriots!” Jerome Hudson, a Tallahassee Community College student, said at the start of the three-hour festivities. Hudson, who is black, contradicted some national media critics who have called the “tea parties” thinly veiled racism and mob emotionalism.

“The tea-party movement is not a racist movement,” he said. “The spirit of the tea party movement, as found in ‘We, the people,’ is the spirit of America.”

Speakers and hand-lettered signs in the crowd derided President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. A few participants warned of “infiltrators” — liberals who act like extremists to make the movement look bad — but the crowd was upbeat and orderly, accompanied by singing patriotic and Christian songs.

Preston Scott, a Tallahassee radio host who introduced speakers and performers, even asked the crowd to turn facing Apalachee Parkway and smile and wave at motorists, “just to let them know we’re not an angry mob.” Several drivers honked and waved as the Capitol shadow spread across the crowd, estimated at about 600 by police. Scott said he thought the crowd reached about 1,000 at its peak.

David Beamer, whose son Todd gave the memorable command “Let’s roll” as passengers of United Flight 93 fought hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001, silenced the crowd with a solemn plea for strength in domestic and foreign defense.

“I don’t care what color President Obama is, I care what color he is not — he’s not red, white and blue,” said Beamer, who repeated that line about Pelosi and other Democratic leaders. Beamer, who lives in Jacksonville Beach, drew applause when he added, “This chap Marco Rubio looks red, white and blue to me.”

Rubio is running for the U.S. Senate against Gov. Charlie Crist in the Republican primary. No Crist signs were seen at the rally but several wore Rubio stickers. Local and district candidates, as well as the Leon County Republican Party, had tables to sign up voters.

House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach, and Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said the Legislature passed a resolution calling on Congress to balance the federal budget. Hasner also noted that there is a memorial to Congress urging “no civil trials for enemy combatant terrorists.”

Speakers included John Stemberger, the Orlando lawyer and family-law activist who led the successful 2008 constitutional amendment legally defining marriage in Florida, and Glenn Beck, who sent a videotape saying “time is on your side” in changing national policy.

Atwater, running for chief financial officer, said that in 1789 “the states created the federal government, not the other way around.”

He also cited criticism of the tea parties by Reid and Pelosi.

“They called us an angry mob,” he said. “Well, we have a message for them: This country was founded on an angry mob. … We, the people — it’s our country and we’re taking it back.”

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